As part of the “One Big, Beautiful Bill” that passed through the U.S. Congress and was signed into law on the 4th of July, 2025, a new measure, designed to reduce, according to administration officials, the amount of fraud and abuse in the U.S. visa system, the “visa integrity fee” will be applied to non-immigrant travelers to the United States, staring October 1, 2025.
A fee of $250 will be assessed to visitors who need non-immigrant visas, which includes tourists, business travelers, and international students, and will be paid when applications for visas are submitted.
Some visitors, according to the U.S. Department of Homeland Security, including those from many European countries, may not need visas to enter under the Visa Waiver Program.
Travelers most impacted by the measure will be non-immigrant visitors from Brazil, Mexico, China, & India, whose travel volumes to the United States have increased, despite an overall decline in visits.
Travelers from non-visa waiver countries like Mexico and Brazil will be required to pay as much as $442, according to the U.S. Travel Association.
The measure is designed to cut back on fraud and abuse of the visa system by undocumented migrants. An estimated 42% of the approximately 11 million unauthorized population living in the United States entered the country legally, but overstayed their period of admission, the data shows.
Numerous other countries, like the U.K., are increasing their visa fees, either to take advantage of tourism trends or to crack down on abuse of the system.
